Begging and homelessness here is the tip of a full-blown social emergency we see with ram-raiding kids destroying property for the sake of it.
RNZ hit the nail on the head saying shopkeepers on Auckland’s K Road are in despair. Not just the ram raids, but the crime and grime with begging and homelessness. And it’s not just K Road, or Auckland, but in towns across New Zealand.
In 2018, Stuff asked the newly minted Member of Parliament, Priyanca Radhakrishnan, who is now a Cabinet Minister by the way, what was the best way to deal with the growth of begging.
Her answer was social housing. Why then, four years later, did Stuff report the Human Rights Commission saying that 100,000 Kiwis were homeless?
As business owners we agree there are addiction, mental health and a host of “complex issues”, but the policy response seems to be, “no action, talk only”.
Let’s put 100,000 homeless into perspective. India is thought to have around 1.8 million homeless, a huge number, but then again it has 234 times the population of Aotearoa. That does not put us into a good light. The Indian government even conducted a national survey of beggars, whereas we are in official denial as statistics are hard to find.
As RNZ found, businesses deal with the grimy consequences. Human waste, drug equipment, broken glass, crime, drunk and drugged behaviour, and that’s on a good day. I’ve had to stop traffic as someone had an expletive-filled episode halfway across a road.
Give money to a charity, not beggars. Due to a comprehensive social welfare net, begging is unnecessary and unwanted.
That’s not to say those begging or sleeping rough don’t have real issues. Perhaps they are addicted, perhaps they cannot read or write, or maybe they need glasses and hearing aids.
Some have real mental health challenges too. Yes, “it’s complex”, but guess what – that’s why we pay our taxes and expect government to work on issues too complex for you and I. Is leaving people on the streets in soiled clothing kind? I don’t think so.
A back to the future approach is needed. The state has corporatised welfare, but it isn’t working. More costs, worse outcomes.
We need to make the Salvation Army, city missions, Presbyterian Support Services and their counterparts in temples and mosques all central to welfare provision, not just peripheral to it. Give charities a chance.
Begging itself must be de-normalised. Before 1981, it was an offence and the time has come to reinstate that. Outlawing begging and vagrancy would give agencies and the courts real options to help people to get their lives back on track.
For the bad eggs using begging as cover for more nefarious activities there should be prison. For many, it might mean a rehabilitation centre where health, addiction, psychological and educational gaps can be addressed with an assisted work and housing programme to go into.
We have a great model for this in how refugees are inducted into Kiwi society.
For those truly unable to look after themselves, the street is no answer. That’s neglect in the community.
The ongoing inquiry into past state care provides lessons in not what to do, but it does not remove the state’s obligation to protect our most vulnerable. That includes from themselves.
So, where’s the Ministry of Social Development? At the time of the 2017 general election, MSD had 62 staff in central Auckland and 1810 in central Wellington.
Last April, those 62 had become 141, a 127% jump, while in Wellington, the numbers swelled by a full third to 2416.
The number receiving emergency accommodation grants in the Auckland region jumped from 16,656 in 2017, to 51,099 for 2021. Yet begging and homelessness continues to get worse.
To break the cycle means denormalising begging but means MSD must get out of its offices to walk the streets and actively engage with those living on it.
That’s a start, but it needs sanctions to force change, with wraparound rehabilitation support and safe, secure places to live for those unable to look after themselves. What we’re doing right now isn’t working.
The state can’t do it alone and needs the charitable sector as a fully-fledged partner. This is a social investment call to change lives for the better than throwing benefits and hostel accommodation as answers.....The full article is published HERE
Sunny Kaushal is chair of the Dairy and Business Owners’ Group and has business interests in central Auckland.
Her answer was social housing. Why then, four years later, did Stuff report the Human Rights Commission saying that 100,000 Kiwis were homeless?
As business owners we agree there are addiction, mental health and a host of “complex issues”, but the policy response seems to be, “no action, talk only”.
Let’s put 100,000 homeless into perspective. India is thought to have around 1.8 million homeless, a huge number, but then again it has 234 times the population of Aotearoa. That does not put us into a good light. The Indian government even conducted a national survey of beggars, whereas we are in official denial as statistics are hard to find.
As RNZ found, businesses deal with the grimy consequences. Human waste, drug equipment, broken glass, crime, drunk and drugged behaviour, and that’s on a good day. I’ve had to stop traffic as someone had an expletive-filled episode halfway across a road.
Give money to a charity, not beggars. Due to a comprehensive social welfare net, begging is unnecessary and unwanted.
That’s not to say those begging or sleeping rough don’t have real issues. Perhaps they are addicted, perhaps they cannot read or write, or maybe they need glasses and hearing aids.
Some have real mental health challenges too. Yes, “it’s complex”, but guess what – that’s why we pay our taxes and expect government to work on issues too complex for you and I. Is leaving people on the streets in soiled clothing kind? I don’t think so.
A back to the future approach is needed. The state has corporatised welfare, but it isn’t working. More costs, worse outcomes.
We need to make the Salvation Army, city missions, Presbyterian Support Services and their counterparts in temples and mosques all central to welfare provision, not just peripheral to it. Give charities a chance.
Begging itself must be de-normalised. Before 1981, it was an offence and the time has come to reinstate that. Outlawing begging and vagrancy would give agencies and the courts real options to help people to get their lives back on track.
For the bad eggs using begging as cover for more nefarious activities there should be prison. For many, it might mean a rehabilitation centre where health, addiction, psychological and educational gaps can be addressed with an assisted work and housing programme to go into.
We have a great model for this in how refugees are inducted into Kiwi society.
For those truly unable to look after themselves, the street is no answer. That’s neglect in the community.
The ongoing inquiry into past state care provides lessons in not what to do, but it does not remove the state’s obligation to protect our most vulnerable. That includes from themselves.
So, where’s the Ministry of Social Development? At the time of the 2017 general election, MSD had 62 staff in central Auckland and 1810 in central Wellington.
Last April, those 62 had become 141, a 127% jump, while in Wellington, the numbers swelled by a full third to 2416.
The number receiving emergency accommodation grants in the Auckland region jumped from 16,656 in 2017, to 51,099 for 2021. Yet begging and homelessness continues to get worse.
To break the cycle means denormalising begging but means MSD must get out of its offices to walk the streets and actively engage with those living on it.
That’s a start, but it needs sanctions to force change, with wraparound rehabilitation support and safe, secure places to live for those unable to look after themselves. What we’re doing right now isn’t working.
The state can’t do it alone and needs the charitable sector as a fully-fledged partner. This is a social investment call to change lives for the better than throwing benefits and hostel accommodation as answers.....The full article is published HERE
Sunny Kaushal is chair of the Dairy and Business Owners’ Group and has business interests in central Auckland.
2 comments:
Downtown Auckland sure is depressing and threatening with beggars everywhere and the library a doss house. Not long ago many lived in run down boarding houses, garages, sheds, old caravans, seedy camp grounds like Tui Glen etc, but all these have been closed because cannot meet fanciful regulations. Others were in institutions. But because staff steal from extensively (food, manchester) and inmates later lay hundred thousand dollar claims for real or contrived bodily interference, these are no longer available either. The footloose could fetch a newspaper out of a rubbish tin, find likely accommodation, and phone from a box. Now they need a cellphone, the ability to operate and no identifiable numbers to call anyway.
This is a product of our destroyed educational system which focuses on social engineering instead of actual education and preparation for life, and producing independent citizens. As I have stated before to, ad nauseam statistics show of those who fail to achieve sufficient competency in reading two thirds will end up on welfare or prison.
Our schooling is an educational fiasco, Of course I am not ignoring SES factors and the moral, ethical and spiritual vacuum but they are more difficult to solve than changing the education system.
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